Safe
by Maetel
Summary: A different take on Parting of the Ways. What if the Doctor hadn't been able to save Rose after she looked into the Heart of the TARDIS? What if that wasn't his last chance?


Pairing: 9/Rose

Summary: A different sort of ending to Parting of the Ways. I'm not quite sure how to summarize it so far, but I'm sure it'll come to me.

To see the chapter art for this chapter, visit my LJ, the link to which is on my profile page.

* * *

He'd been trying to think of a way to tell her. To explain what had happened that day so far in the future. But how does one tell a mother like Jackie Tyler, whose only family was the daughter who gave her life in the future so that she might save one not worth so great a sacrifice.

He watched as the seemingly middle aged hair dresser walked towards her complex, completely unaware of his presence. Perhaps she'd seen this coming all along. Perhaps that was why she was so adamant about not accepting him. She saw that he'd be the reason she'd be left without the daughter she had raised alone for eighteen years. She saw that his curse would take Rose in the end.

His eyes drifted up height of the building, watching as Jackie carried a sack of groceries up to her flat. With every step she took, he remembered every step he took with Rose. Each footfall wound up turning into a stab of guilt. Guilt the blonde had been helping him work through with each smile, each embrace, each day that she chose not to leave.

She was out of sight in a moment, having reached the entrance. He contemplated going up those stairs and simply telling Jackie what had happened, come what may. He wouldn't blame her for any reaction. How could he?

"Save me, my Doctor..." he heard the wind whisper. He turned for a moment, his reactions not quite registering the fact that she was no longer there to call him. He'd heard his name called by her voice twice before since leaving Satellite 5. Once when he and Jack had buried her on Woman Wept, and again when he'd first come to London in an attempt to tell Jackie.

He believed the first more fitting, considering how much she loved being there when they'd gone. She'd already shown how she'd sacriice herself and the life she was leaving behind. In hindsight, he knew he should have probably brought her home, but how would he have explained her death? He couldn't have just abandoned her body on her mum's couch. She deserved more than that.

The Doctor heard someone walking towards him, only to stop a couple of meters away. The sound of almost inaudible shuffling and a familiar sigh escaped his present company.

"Still can't tell her?" Jack asked, his hands in his pockets as he too looked up to watch the building that he knew Rose had lived in. He had his hands shoved in the brown leather jacket meant to shield him from the cold, though he could honestly say it wouldn't have bothered him much either way.

"No," the Time Lord replied solemnly.

"I can tell her if you want," Jack suggested, looking at the man who looked far too young for his age, and far too guilty for his own good.

"No, he repeated with a deep breath. "But can I ask you to do one thing for me?"

The former time agent looked at the Doctor, trying to figure out what was going to be asked of him, but came up clueless. He knew the Doctor wouldn't ask him to kill him. He'd been acting stranger than Jack would have expected, but not to a point of seeming suicidal.

"Anything," he finally replied, bracing himself mentally for just that.

"Watch over her. I've something that I need to do on my own, and I want to make sure that Jackie's protected," the Doctor asked, turning his eyes towards the Captain. "I'll be back for you, but for now, I just need some time to take care of things."

Jack looked as though he were ready to argue, but didn't. Instead, he nodded and crossed his arms over his chest. That was something that he hadn't been expecting. The Doctor didn't seem like the type of person to ever _ask_ to be alone. He knew that the man had traveled by himself before meeting Rose, but that hadn't necessarily been by choice from the way he and Rose spoke.

"You sure?" he questioned, wanting to double check.

"Yes," he said with an air of finality that halted any further questions. He moved to head back towards the TARDIS, but was stopped when Jack put a hand on his shoulder. He turned to look at the considerably younger man with a weight upon his shoulders that he wasn't even aware of.

"You'd better come back. I don't want to have to spend the rest of my life wondering what happened to you," Jack stated.

"I will," the Doctor said before he was pulled into a hug by Jack. He returned the gesture with every ounce of emotion he could afford, but deep down, every part of him was screaming get away. Otherwise, he wouldn't be leaving the Captain behind. It hurt, the idea of being alone again, but it was necessary for his sanity, what little there was left after all that had taken place.

The two parted, the Doctor turning to walk back to the TARDIS, while Jack remained there, hoping that whatever the Doctor was doing, he'd come out of it all right.

* * *

As the Doctor walked, he was thinking back to the little time he'd spent with his father. A joy of being born to a human mother. He'd grown up allowed to know some things about both sides of himself, human and Gallifreyan, including the old stories that his father told when trying to get an infant to sleep. His memory was clear, but he the repeated story he'd heard for so many nights in his early youth was bright. Well, the part he needed. Perhaps that was because of what he bore witness to.

"You're mother says that there was a legend of a creature that existed outside of the universe. Outside the realm of the Time Lords. That the creature was a being of protection and purity. That it was so pure that not even the taint that every living being carries can dare corrupt it. That instead this creature, should it ever come in contact with anything that threatens its purity, will burn away this filth, however minute, and grant it a new life.

" 'Rebirth,' your mother would love to say. She believed that this creature was so pure that it would not kill anyone for it was incapable of such an act. Instead, the creature would send the being away untouched and blessed."

He remembered asking what the creature was called only to have his father say that his mother had never told. That the creature had gone by so many names that it no one remembered.

The Doctor had a feeling that he knew.

Every story had an inkling of truth. That's why people clung to the ideas found in stories. That's why the Doctor was clinging to a human tale that his father had only partially remembered. He doubted in the rebirth aspect, but the rest rang true to him.

"Bad Wolf," he muttered as he stalked towards his ship. His thoughts drifted to the rest of the story as he tried to remember everything else his father had told him of the old human tale.

"I'm sorry, Anne, but I can't. I've got to work," he heard a slightly familiar voice rasp as a dark haired human went strolling stopping at a crossing, waiting for the signal to change. Probably someone he and Rose had passed a few times during their returns to London. There was the sound of a cough before she continued. "Yeah, I know what I've said, but I still need to pay for my part of the rent." There was a pause. "Sorry again, Anne." There was the sound of a phone flipping shut with a quiet murmur of, "Reminds me I've scoffed at the idea of eating chips and going to work, but stops when I remind her that I pay half of the bleedin' rent."

The Doctor would have laughed at the woman's words if he were in a better state of heart. Unfortunately though, all he did was walk away from the short haired brunette wearing the red hoodie.


End file.
